RIO DE JANEIRO, June 2 (Xinhua) -- Brazil Tuesday
confirmed the debris found earlier on the open Atlantic Ocean belonged to Air
France Flight 447, solidifying the crash of the jet that went missing early
Monday.
Brazilian Defense Minister Nelson Jobim
holds a diagram of the crash area during a news conference in Rio de
Janeiro June 2, 2009. Jobim said that wreckage spotted in the Atlantic
Ocean is "without a doubt" from the Air France jet that disappeared en
route to Paris from Rio de Janeiro with 228 people on board.
(Xinhua/Reuters Photo) Photo Gallery>>>
The three-mile (five kilometers) path of wreckage
found in the Atlantic Ocean belonged to the Air France jet carrying 228 people
that was believed to have crashed into the sea, Brazilian Defense Minister
Nelson Jobim said on Tuesday.
The debris were found about 400 miles from Brazil's
Fernando de Noronha archipelago, near the Sao Pedro and Sao Paulo Islands.
Pieces of white debris scattered over five kilometers, which, according to the
minister, showed that the plane indeed fell at that site.
There is still no way to determine whether the plane
blew up, and there is also no news of survivors, said Jobim.
The objects found at the sea will be taken to the
Fernando de Noronha archipelago on a Brazilian naval ship, said Jobim. The
minister added that Brazil will be in charge of the recovery of the plane parts,
while France will carry out the investigations.
Brazilian Defense Minister Nelson Jobim
gives a news conference in Rio de Janeiro June 2, 2009.
(Xinhua/Reuters Photo) Photo Gallery>>>
Brazilian navy ships are not expected to arrive in
the area until Wednesday morning. Three mercantile ships, which were close to
the area, have reached the crash site.
The final passengers' list of the plane will be
released on Wednesday by Air France, Jobim said. But it will not be complete, he
said, as some of the names will be held upon the requests of families and
relatives.
The debris was discovered more than 24 hours after
the jet went missing. Flight 447, an Airbus 330-200 bound for Charles de Gaulle
airport in Paris, lost contact with the control center shortly after its takeoff
from Rio de Janeiro on Sunday at 7 p.m. (2200 GMT). It was expected in Paris on
Monday at 11:15 a.m. (0915 GMT).
The four-year-old plane was last heard from at 0214
GMT on Monday. Since local time early on Tuesday, five spotter jets, three
Brazilian and two French, have been searching the missing airliner under the
command of the Brazilian Air France.
With all 228 on board feared dead, it could be the
world's worst aviation disaster since 2001.
A relative of the missing airliner's
victims leaves the Rio de Janeiro International Airport escorted by guards
in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, June 1, 2009. An Air France airliner with 228
people onboard missing over the Atlantic Ocean after its takeoff from Rio
de Janeiro on Sunday was probably hit by lightning and suffered an
electrics failure while flying through an Atlantic storm, said Air France
on Monday. (Xinhua/Song Weiwei) Photo Gallery>>>
The cause of the disaster remains a mystery. Air
France said it could have been hit by lightning. Other potential causes include
violently shifting winds and hail from thunderheads, and the area in the
Atlantic Ocean where the plane is suspected to be down, used to be called by
sailors as The Doldrums, where a calm can quickly become a violent storm.
The 216 passengers came from 32 countries, including
nine from China, 61 from France, 58 from Brazil and 26 from Germany. The crew
included 11 French and one Brazilian.
RIO DE JANEIRO, June 2 (Xinhua) -- No objects have been discovered by three cargo ships arriving at the area in the Atlantic off Brazil's coast where an Air France plane crashed, the Brazilian Navy said on Tuesday.
The three cargo ships from France and the Netherlands have been rerouting to the area after debris from the crashed plane was spotted. Full story
PARIS, June 2 (Xinhua) -- A French expert said on Tuesday that the missing of Air France Flight 447, believed to have crashed, was most likely the result of a technical failure caused by bad weather.
Pierre Sparaco, a member of the French Air and Space Academy, said an accident was more likely to occur when the aircraft was taking off or landing, compared with the period of cruise aviation. Full story
PARIS, June 2 (Xinhua) -- French Prime Minister Francois Fillon said Tuesday it is still unclear what caused the disappearance of the Air France Airbus.
"No theory is favored at the moment," Fillon told the
French parliament. Full story
RIO DE JANEIRO,
June 2 (Xinhua) -- The debris found earlier in the day undoubtedly belonged to
the Air France Flight 447, which went missing in the early hours of Monday,
Brazil's Defense Minister Nelson Jobim said Tuesday afternoon.
The debris was found at the open ocean in the
mid-Atlantic, about 400 miles (640 km) northeast of Brazil's Fernando de Noronha
archipelago, Jobim told a press conference in Rio. Full story
RIO DE JANEIRO, June 2
(Xinhua) -- Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva voiced his confidence
on Tuesday that the search teams will manage to find the bodies of the likely
victims of the Air France Flight 447, which disappeared over the Atlantic Ocean
in the early hours of Monday, local media reported.
Lula, who is on an official visit to Guatemala, has
been informed by Brazil's Defense Minister Nelson Jobim of the latest
developments of the issue, such as the fact that debris were spotted by Air
Force planes on Tuesday. Full story
WASHINGTON, June 2
(Xinhua) -- A U.S. Navy P-3C Orion maritime patrol plane will join international
search efforts for survivors and debris from Air France Flight 447, which was
believed to have crashed, the U.S. Southern Command said Tuesday.
The aircraft and 21 U.S. crew members arrived in Brazil
earlier in the day from its forward operating location in Comalapa Air Base, El
Salvador, the command said in a statement. Full story
SHENYANG, June 2 (Xinhua) -- Two Chinese companies said
Tuesday that seven employees were on board the Air France jetliner that vanished
in the Atlantic.
Benxi Iron & Steel (Group) Co. Ltd. said four men and
two women, including a senior manager, were taking the flight to Paris after
business talks with representatives of Australia's BHP Billiton Ltd. and
Brazil's CVRD, said Liu Dahong, vice director of publicity department of the
company based in Liaoning Province, northeast China. Full story
A Brazilian Air Force radar plane at
Fernando de Noronha airport preparing for the search of the Air France
flight 447 bound for Paris that plunged into the Atlantic just a few hours
after taking off on late May 31 from Rio de Janeiro.((Xinhua/AFP
Photo) Photo
Gallery>>>
RIO
DE JANEIRO, June 2 (Xinhua) -- A pilot from Brazil's airline TAM may have
spotted a burning piece of wreckage of the Air France passenger plane that
disappeared early Monday morning.
The Brazilian Air Force confirmed late Monday that
the pilot saw "orange-colored spots" on the Atlantic Ocean, about 40 minutes
after the last contact between Air France Flight 447 and Brazil's air control
center.Full story
PARIS, June 1 (Xinhua) -- Air France's chief executive
said on Monday that the missing Air France airliner Airbus A330-200 disappeared
in the middle of the waters between Brazilian and African coasts with a
circumference of scores of nautical miles. Full story
BRASILIA, June 1 (Xinhua)
-- Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said on Monday that he "shares
the pain of the relatives and friends of the victims" from the flight 447 of Air
France that disappeared on Sunday night when it was flying from Rio de Janeiro
to Paris.
The Air France airliner, an Airbus 330-200 bound for
Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris, lost contact with the control center shortly
after its takeoff from Rio de Janeiro on Sunday at 7 p.m. (2200 GMT).Full story
BRUSSELS, June 1
(Xinhua) -- European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso expressed express
solidarity and sympathy over an accident of an Air France aircraft in a message
sent respectively on Monday to French President Nicolas Sarkozy and his
Brazilian counterpart Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.
"It is with emotion that I learned of the accident
that took place this Sunday with an Air France plane from Rio de Janeiro to
Paris, causing 228 victims and enormous suffering on both sides ofthe Atlantic,"
Barroso said on behalf of the European Commission. Full story
RIO
DE JANEIRO, June 1 (Xinhua) -- The Brazilian government said on Monday that
three Air Force planes and three Navy ships are in route to take part on the
search effort for the Air France Flight 447, some 1,100 kilometers off the coast
of the Brazilian city of Natal in the country's northeastern region.
The French government is also helping, with a
military aircraft which took off from Senegal earlier on Monday. Full story
PARIS, June 1 (Xinhua) -- Chances of finding any survivors
are "very slim" as an Air France airliner with 228 people on board vanished over
the Atlantic Ocean, French President Nicolas Sarkozy said on Monday. Full story
PARIS, June 1 (Xinhua) -- Air France announced Monday that
victims aboard Flight 447 missing over the Atlantic on route from Rio de Janeiro
to Paris-Charles de Gaulle airport came from 32 countries. Full story
EIO DE JANEIRO, June 1 (Xinhua) -- Eight Chinese nationals
were onboard an Air France passenger plane missing over the Atlantic off the
Brazilian coast, the Chinese Embassy in Brazil said on Monday. Full story
